SocialBrowse, the link-sharing service that includes elements of web annotation, has launched its service to the public. When I first wrote about SocialBrowse as it entered private beta last June, I described it as a “Twitter for links”, but since then it has grown to become much more sophisticated, allowing users to leave in-line comments on articles across the web. The service is currently only available as a Firefox extension, with an Internet Explorer plugin on the way.
The site’s core functionality involves sharing links, which are distributed to your SocialBrowse friends using a Twitter-like “Follow” system. Users can view these links through the SocialBrowse homepage, a Firefox sidebar, or as tiny icons embedded on webpages. Whenever a user shares a link, a miniature version of their profile picture is embedded inline as part of the link on the page itself, so any members that visit the same site will be able to quickly see which pages their friends have found interesting.
The site has also recently incorporated an annotation system that allows users to leave comments on these links, which appear whenever you mouse over a friend’s inline icon. This feature has a lot of potential, allowing users to converse on articles across the web without having to use another site like FriendFeed or Twitter. That said, the execution still needs some work - the comment interface was a little clunky, and I had a hard time reading them on some pages because of their position on the webpage. A similar (but somewhat more robust) annotation platform is Dotspots, which launched at TechCrunch50.
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Looks interesting.
I’ve been using a service like this called Letscube.com its been around for some time now. Based on your interests, they recommend links from other users/friends aswell, its very interesting. They also augment your google search results with a couple of links related to your search with links from your friends.
That sounds a lot like diigo, too - you can highlight (which turns into a clip on your bookmarks page) annotate with inline comments or page descriptions, and of course add lots of tags that are automatically generated from the page content or whatever you want to use.
Diigo can upload your contacts from gmail and many other services so you can share links instantly or instantly post them to twitter or del.icio.us or other social tools using the toolbar. Using the website, you can have people sign up for RSS feeds of your links, of course, or see what people with similar interests have tagged or send links to groups or people (on or off diigo).
Installs without problem on Flock 2 on MacBook Air. Testing it right now.
Meh. There have been a number of iterations off this “extra layer to the web” concept. The problem is, they don’t serve that much utility or entertainment value, and are highly prone to graffiti / vandalism.
Checkout Iskold’s post on RRW from 2 yrs ago comparing a number of these “social bookmarking” services as it is still relevant:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/ar.....aceoff.php
Now, this sounds like a service that can help boost SEO, without paying for link exchanges. The thing that i feel is most effective about a service like this is that it’s social networking related, meaning “Twitter Like”. Additionally, perhaps it can help bloggers boost web traffic…:-)
It seems to be familiar to the social scripting that iMacros offers:
http://wiki.imacros.net/iMacro....._Scripting
interesting but a little bit slow to refresh….in my case.
SocialBrowse user from the beta point!
And it really is great.
They better be carbon offsetting their extra web layer.
Uhm, so it only works as a plugin for Firefox…?! Way to go…
I guess I’ll have to pass then…
There are already much more sophisticated solutions for social browsing: look at BumpIn.com.
This is not social browsing. You are in competition with Me.dium
Diigo still seems more fully featured. Or, imacros if you want to get into more complicated, but highly functional stuff (the downside is that really useful imacros version is not free.
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another idea - annotated links. Combine together some links with your own annotation (just a note - post-it): http://alink.linkstore.ru
Quite a few folks doing variations of this, since Third Voice back in 1995. I’m trying http://www.tynt.com right now and streaming them to my followers on Twitter. Seems like people do want to do this, but these companies aren’t getting critical mass. Any thoughts as to why?